


Destination

by EvaBelmort



Category: Petshop of Horrors
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-29
Updated: 2010-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-10 20:36:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/104014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvaBelmort/pseuds/EvaBelmort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leon's getting closer, but he's still a step behind.<br/>Warnings: Character death-ish. Also, spoilers for the end of the first Pet Shop series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destination

**Author's Note:**

> Song/Theme: Alela Diane - Every Path  
> Originally posted on [oddible](http://oddible.dreamwidth.org) for December, 2009.

  
Another day, another Chinatown, and Leon Orcot was beginnning to feel as though he was trapped in a hall of mirrors - dozens of cities he'd been to now, and each Chinatown was different yet essentially the same, like an endless series of slightly distorted reflections.  
Walking down the main street, busy even in the gathering dusk, he started when a boy bumped into him, then sighed, spun on his heel and darted after the kid. The boy had ducked into an alley, and Leon managed to catch hold of his wrist before he could scramble over a wire fence. He tugged the kid back down to the ground, and pinned him in place with a glare. The wrist in his hand was so thin Leon was half-afraid he'd break it if the kid struggled, but instead he was cringing as though he expected Leon to beat the crap out of him. Leon sighed again, turned the glare down a notch, and said, " Look, I don't care if you keep the money, but I need my ID." Releasing the skinny wrist, he took a step back.  
"I'm serious, kid. You look like you could use a good meal or six; just give back the other stuff, okay?"  
The boy skittered back a little, sharply nervous and kept one eye fixed warily on Leon while he fished out the wallet, and vanished Leon's half-dozen bills into a pocket with deft fingers. Then he tossed Leon's wallet to him, high, and while Leon was distracted the kid leapt forward, shoving him hard in the chest, sending him sprawling on the ground with the air knocked out of him, and was gone. Flat on his back but still holding his wallet, Leon let himself go limp and closed his eyes.  
_Hell of a day. Hell of a year, really. And now I probably reek of God-only-knows-what. Ah well, I've had worse..._  
Once he'd gotten his breath back, he hauled himself to his feet and walked back out of the alley. It was full dark now, and Chinatown truly was breathtaking sometimes, the mass of people flowing past him under the warm glow of paper lanterns. Caught up in the current like a fallen leaf, he wandered for a while in the crowd, adrift in babbling voices. He'd picked up bits and pieces of Chinese, here and there, out of necessity mostly; his speech might not be elegant but he could make himself understood, and trying to track D he only ever got one answer anyway. Nobody'd ever actually tell him that the pet shop had been there, but he'd come to recognise a 'no' that actually meant 'yes', especially where Count D's pet shop was concerned. It was something in the silence around the word, sometimes fear, always awe, whispers of monsters, and of gods... D wasn't in this town any more, but he had been, and not that long ago, either, which meant Leon had just missed him again.  
The stream of people ebbed briefly, and Leon stepped out of it and leant against an empty wall to get his bearings. There must have been a festival of some sort, he thought to himself, because there were a lot of oddly-dressed folk in the crowd. The moon was high overhead now, bright for such a narrow sickle, leeching the colour out of the throng until they looked inhuman and strange. Oddly, it seemed to wash out the sound too, the babble of voices dying away, the people moving on past him in some sort of procession, and then he was alone by the side of an empty street. It must have been far later than he'd thought, too, because the shops were all shuttered, lanterns out, not even a garish streak of flickering neon to guide him in a place rendered suddenly unfamiliar.  
Staring at his watch under the cold moonlight, he found that it read seventeen minutes past five PM, and the second hand wasn't moving. He almost snickered to himself - wasn't that one of the signs of alien abductions? - but dismissed the thought immediately, because D's weirdness was one thing, but if he started believing in aliens he might as well just give up and call himself crazy. Maybe he'd hit his head earlier and blacked out, which would explain why it was so late; he'd probably broken the watch then, too. He'd have to go to a hospital or something, get himself looked at, just as soon as he got out he got out of this place.  
He wandered back the way he'd come, or at least what he thought was the way he'd come, but all he found was more empty streets, and eventually he stopped. He set his face to what was probably the right direction and just walked in a straight line; the whole place was only a dozen blocks across, it wouldn't take long at all. He counted as he went, too, and by the time he'd walked for fifteen blocks and found nothing but the same black and white silence, there was something uncomfortably like panic clawing at his chest, making it hard to breathe. He stopped again, standing in the middle of the road since there didn't seem to be any traffic to worry about, and lit a cigarette. The familiar motion was soothing, and he felt almost calm again as he looked up, and realised he was standing directly opposite the alley he'd wandered out of God-knows-how-long ago. Stepping closer, he felt that sharp, painful feeling in his chest again, except that it might not be panic, he acknowledged dully, might not be that at all. There was a very familiar body lying on the ground in the alley, a black stain spread across its shirt to match the pain in Leon's chest.  


~#~#~#~#~#~#~

  
D had been having an odd day. He'd woken with a curious, unpleasant feeling somewhere behind his ribs; he'd checked all the pets, and as yet he was unable to find the cause. It was making him uncharacteristically irritable, and when Taizuu stopped by with the usual veiled threats and accusations (although they were becoming less veiled and more outright as time went on - absolutely no patience) he actually had to stop himself from snapping at the man. It grated, some days more than others, this human who thought he had some right to demand answers, all that arrogance, without the fierce heart behind it that had made his Detective so much easier to tolerate.  
Oddly enough, that wistful thought soothed the frayed edges of his temper, and his high-handed landlord apparently had an appointment to keep, so he was able to finish his tea in peace. Still, it was a fortunate thing that there were few customers, and by the time the sun set he was seriously considering just closing up for the night.  
Then the shop door slid open, and he felt the tension in his chest _twist_, his welcoming spiel dying on his lips as he stared.  
"Hey, D. How've you been?" Leon was smiling at him, pleased and relieved and something else D wasn't quite sure of, and he hadn't even shouted. It was, in a word, unexpected, and left D feeling a little lost, off-balance.  
"Hello, Mr Detective," he managed, "I do believe you're just in time for tea."  
That earned him a soft chuckle, but Leon didn't move from his spot, just inside the door. "I'm not a detective any more. And I don't think I can stay for tea, sorry. I-" He paused, dragging a hand through his hair, ducking his shoulders a little.  
D frowned; this was definitely odd. "Not a detective?"  
"Yeah, I kinda left. It-" Leon sighed, then, and took a folded piece of paper from his coat and held it out. "You left this behind."  
"Oh. Was that-" D stepped forward to take the paper, but as his fingers closed on it, Leon met his eyes at last.  
"And I'm sorry. If I hadn't been such a jerk that morning... You were going to tell me, weren't you? Not all of it, maybe, and I don't know how that would have played out either, if it would have changed anything, but- yeah. I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you."  
He took a step back, leaving D holding the paper; D looked down, feeling an unusually soft smile curve his mouth. "Thank you. Leon."  
Leon's answering smile was warm. "You're welcome. It was good to see you, and. Well. Goodbye, D." His clear blue eyes held D's mismatched gaze for a moment longer, then he turned and stepped back through the door, closing it behind him. D stared after him for a moment, his fingers clenched tight on the folded drawing, then he dashed through the door.  
Leon was only a couple of steps from the door, and D darted forward, catching him by the wrist. Leon turned, startled, and D said firmly "No."  
"No?" Leon repeated, confused.  
"No. This isn't finished." D's voice slipped from commanding to the soft, coaxing tone he saved for animals, "You could stay, if you wanted to..."  
Leon was looking wistful, resigned. He pulled at D's hand, carefully; people were starting to stare. "That's not how it works, D. Human, remember? And I only came to-"  
"Say goodbye?" D interrupted, refusing to relinquish his hold. "I understand. And you could stay now, if you wanted. You could stay forever."  
Leon's eyes went very wide, stunned, but when D held up his other hand Leon took it without a word.  


~#~#~#~#~#~#~

  
When Lau came by after his last meeting for the day, he found that Count D's pet shop had a closed sign on the door but wasn't locked. His assistant twittered unhappily but ineffectually when he pushed the door open and made his way inside, only to find the main room empty. Well, empty of the Count, at any rate; that unpleasant sheep-thing was draped limply over an armchair, and snapped at him irritably despite the wide berth he gave it.  
He wandered about the room for a moment, not really expecting that the Count would have left anything incriminating, but it never hurt to check. There was a piece of folded paper on a side table, but when he opened it all he found was a clumsy child's drawing. One of the figures was probably meant to be the Count, though he didn't recognise any of the others, and the figure standing beside the Count was obscured by a dark stain. Turning the paper over, he found that the stain was dark reddish-brown and some of it was flaking off onto his fingers; he replaced it hurriedly, brushing his fingers off, and turned away.  
He wasn't quite game to go into the shop's back room without its unnerving owner, so he settled himself on a lounge by the coffee table, gesturing his assistant toward a seat when the man hovered nervously. He was just about to light up a cigarette when the back door opened, and the Count came through, stopping when he noticed that he had company.  
He frowned sharply, "Really, Taizuu. The closed sign wasn't only for customers. To what do I owe the honour of two visits in the same day?"  
"Apparently you caused quite a scene earlier," Lau said, watching him intently, "chasing after some foreigner who was leaving your shop. The whole building has been quite abuzz with curiosity."  
"Oh, is that so? There was a slight misunderstanding about something which he was delivering, and it was something I particularly wanted and had no intention of losing. That was all."  
"Not a customer, then? Or an employee?" Lau demanded, disappointed.  
The Count finally seemed to notice that he was standing in the doorway, and came forward, taking a seat on the lounge opposite Lau's. "Not either, I'm afraid. Was that all?"  
Lau, however, had quite lost interest in the conversation as he stared at the animal which had followed the Count from the back room. "Count, is that a lion?" he asked, as the beast in question stepped smoothly onto the lounge and settled down comfortably.  
"Of course. What else did you think it might be?" The Count replied mildly, as the lion turned and regarded Lau intently for a long moment, before resting its head on the Count's lap. "I've just acquired him. Isn't he just lovely?"  
"Oh yes, very." Lau replied blankly. Did lions normally have blue eyes? It didn't appear inclined to attack him, at least, but a corner of his mind was busy wondering if anyone had seen them go into the shop, and whether anyone would even find the bodies. "And what on earth are you going to do with a lion, anyway?"  
"What a silly question, Taizuu," the Count answered, his smile warm and pleased as he buried his long pale fingers in his new pet's shaggy golden mane. "I'm going to keep him." 


End file.
